Following the launch of the third title in Gameloft’s Modern Combat series, they have launched another new game to the Android market: NFL Pro 2012. It’s an NFL football game adapted to the small (or medium, depending on what device you have) screen for football action on the go. It’s going up against a heavy hitter in Madden but considering that they are offering this game for the low cost of free, I can’t see why you wouldn’t download it and give it a shot at your earliest convenience. Hit the Android market up for the download. [via Android Central]

While this isn’t exactly the 10 cent app sale were enjoying a few days ago, Google Music is having a blowout sale of their own, offering up over ten million tracks and/or entire albums from some of the hottest artists in the biz right now, for a little over 50% off. Artists range anywhere from Drake, Jay-Z, to Nirvana and oldies like The Police. Not sure how long these artists will be discounted (limited time offer) so you’d better hurry if you love great music and more importantly, like getting it legally.

Word Press for Android has been updated to version 2.0 in the Android. With the shiny new new version number comes a significant upgrade to the UI of Word Press, like an all new Dashboard and Quick Action Bar, giving users 1-click access to the most used functions in WP. Also new to this version is the inclusion of rich text formatting and better media features. Word Press for Android even has full tablet support, allowing you to take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Can’t say I expect the majority of our readers to find this as excited as we do — you know, having an Android blog and all — but for those of you that have used Word Press in the past (for whatever reason) this most likely comes as a very welcomed update.

You can find the all new and improved Word Press 2.0 for Android in the Market right now for free. Don’t forget to check out the video below to see all the features in action. Cheers.

Google's Andy Rubin tonight on Google+ announced that more than 700,000 Android devices are being activated every day. That's 29,166 devices (more or less) activated every hour. Or 486 devices every minute, or by the time you finish reading this post.

Rubin also explained what counts as an "activation," saying:

"We count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service."

Intel is showing off prototypes for a line of smartphones and tablets set to come to market in 2012.

The devices will run on Android and will be powered by Intel’s new Medfield mobile chip, the latest and most power-efficient design in its Atom line and the most serious competitor to chips from ARM, which currently dominate the mobile landscape.

The Medfield chips are smaller, faster and more advanced than existing mobile chips, and they’re also specifically configured to play nicely with Android OS and apps.

“We expect products based on these to be announced in the first half of 2012,” Stephen Smith, vice president of Intel’s architecture group, told Technology Review, which itself received a couple prototype devices to play with.

The phone prototype, which you can see above, is strikingly similar to an iPhone at first glance but it noticeably lighter. It may ship with the most recent 2.X fork of Android rather than Android 4.0, a.k.a. <a href="http://venturebeat.com/tag/ice-cream-sandwichIce Cream Sandwich, the newest fork of Android which was released this fall.

Intel’s reference tablet device, however, does run Ice Cream Sandwich and features a slightly larger (though not thicker) display than the iPad 2.

Spicing up its mobile side could do a lot to help Intel remain competitive in the overall market. The chip maker has had a rough year in 2011. Earlier this month, the company announced it had reduced its revenue outlook by $1 billion due to flooding in Asia and the resultant hard drive shortage.

In addition to its mobile offerings, Intel is also strongly pushing its chips for the ultrathin ultrabook category, even going so far as providing matchmaking services between small consumer electronics companies and manufacturers to get more of the ultrabook PCs on the market.

Chinese smartphone and tablet manufacturer just hit us up to tease some new kit in 2012, promising we'll see "our smartest, fastest and most high-performing smartphone yet, taking a leap into the future of mobile communications." The announcement will come on the eve of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Huawei has yet to really break into the U.S. market, though it does manufacture the uninspiring T-Mobile Springboard tablet. And while MWC isn't a U.S.-centric show, it is a high-profile show. And with Android Central in attendance yet again, you can bet we'll have plenty of American eyes pointed that way.

Dominating the joint was a giant Android robot, with a slide -- yeah, a slide -- snaking around it. More on that in a minute.

There were a couple of spots for passers-by to be Androidified -- that app that came out this week that turns your picture into an Android-type avatar.

And the smoothie bar -- yeah, there is a smoothie bar -- ¡Muy bien! You could get Cupcake, Donut, Froyo or Honeycomb flavors.

No, not done yet. Remember the showcase of Android phones back at Google IO in May 2010? It's now a train that stretches probably a good 50 feet or so, with just about any Android device you can think of on board. Stuff we've never seen, even.

Talk is cheap, though. Check out the photo gallery -- and more on that slide -- after the break.

The Googlers of Building 44 took some time away from churning out Android improvements to spread some holiday cheer. As can be expected from Google, no expense was spared. They even trucked in some snow to make Santa Claus feel a bit more at home. We’re sending our warmest of holiday wishes right back at you, Android Team. Keep up the great work![via AndroidCentral]

The things that make Android Ice Cream Sandwich such a revolutionary upgradeDecember 22, 2011 | Filed under: Business | Posted by: adminnvonews.comAndroid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is making waves in the tech world. The new upgrade to the Android OS is branded as the most revolutionary version of the software. Many cutting edge features like a redesigned interface, face lock system, Android Beam and many others make ICS the most advanced Android version ever.

The software has been just initiated by Google on Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the third Google Nexus phone. Many new Android products and upgrades are soon to get the Ice Scream Sandwich. On its way, the operating system may simply outperform the iOS 5 and Windows Phone 7.5 in coming months. Here are some key features that Android 4.0 shows off.

Unified Operating System: Following the path of Apple iOS, Google has designed Android 4.0 as a unified version for both tablets and smartphones. Until now, we used Android 2.3 Gingerbread on smartphones and Android 3.0 Honeycomb on tablets. Well, the Ice Cream Sandwich merges the features of both Honeycomb and Gingerbread to become a full-fledged unified OS for the phones and slates alike. The feature largely helps app developers, who just can design apps with less exertion now.

Native screenshot capability: Ice Scream Sandwich has introduced native screenshot capabilities to the Android platform. On devices with the previous version of Android, we have do install extra add-ons to capture screenshots. But Android 4.0 features a facility to take screenshots on just pressing Volume Down + Power buttons. The activity captures you a .png image of the screen you are in, which you can use for further use.

Facial lock system: The new Android version comes with a facial lock system for enhanced security. The feature helps you lock your smartphone or tablet making your face as a key to open it. To activate the feature, the front camera of your ICS device captures your face. Later, while unlocking, the device will match your face with the stored image. As a whole, you get extra security on your Android device. Facial lock system is largely touted as a way to secure your valuable data up from theft.

Great user interface: You can enjoy an unmatched user interface on your Android Ice Cream Sandwich devices. Unlike its previous versions like Honeycomb and Gingerbread, the ICS offers a single interface for both tablets and phones. What makes the ICS interface smart is its simple-to-use interface, widgets and icons rather than anything else. Reviewers have largely lauded the Android version for its being as a unified firmware for both tablets and smartphones.

Android Beam: Android Beam is a feature to let you transfer data between NFC-enabled devices quite instantly. Sharing various contents like images, videos, audio, contacts, web pages and others is possible so quickly thanks to Android Beam. You don’t have to pair two devices and open a menu or app to transfer data now. It can be done as you just touch two NFC devices in tact. Well, it is a smooth way to transfer data between two NFC devices, indeed.

What others say?TechRadar reviewer of Android 4.0 calls it the most accessible and east-to-learn OS ever from Google,

“But make no mistake – Ice Cream Sandwich is the most accessible and easy-to-learn OS from Google, and that’s going to be key in the wars against Apple and Microsoft.”

Meanwhile, Engadget reviewer establishes that ICS is the largest incremental update to Android OS ever,

“If you argue that Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t the largest incremental update to the Android platform since its birth, you’re probably going to lose the fight. Not even counting the number of features added to 4.0, the changes in UI alone are enough to take your breath away.”

Wrap-upAs most of reviewers noted it down, the Ice Cream Sandwich is the most sophisticated version of Android ever. Indeed, the software is to change the way we have been familiar with mobile OS from Google. Many current phones and tablets like Galaxy Tab 10.1, Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Galaxy S II and Droid RAZR are soon to get updated with the latest Android version sooner. In addition, many more devices are expected to come out early next year with Ice Cream Sandwich as well.

GRAPH: Android Phones Pass 700,000 Activations Per Day, Approaching 250 Million Totaltechcrunch.comERICKSCHONFELDposted 30 mins ago3 CommentsAndroid just keeps ramping up higher and higher. Andy Rubin tweeted yesterday that there are now more than 700,000 Android phones activated every single day, which is up from 500,000 activations per day last June. You can see how steep the ramp has been over the past three years by looking at the chart up top, which comes from Horace Dediu at Asymco.

Dediu estimates that the total cumulative number of Android devices activated so far is between 224 million and 253 million. To put this in perspective, last October, Apple announced a cumulative total of 250 million iOS devices sold. But that number includes iPods and iPads.

If you look at only iPhones, Apple was selling only about 190,000 a day, based on the 17 million iPhones sold last quarter. That number did not include sales of the iPhone 4S, which sold at a rate of 1.3 million a day its first three days on sale. We won’t find out until Apple’s next earnings report how many iPhones it is currently selling, but it is likely less than 700,000 a day.

Apple and Android constantly play a game of leapfrog when it comes to announcing numbers. Apple likes to emphasize the bigger iOS number (which includes iPods and iPads), which arguably is more relevant since they also run iOS apps. This numbers game is targeted at developers. The bigger the number, the bigger the potential market. Of course, there are other factors to consider, such as OS fragmentation and which platform is easier to actually make money on.